Hi there! Looking for suggestions fo a 7' blank
I want to build a rod for throwing a hollow or plastic frog into slop, grass, pads etc.
I will be going with micro guides.
Spiral or straight with the guides? I have never built a spiral wrap before.
Thanks for your help!
Personally I use the Castaway 874 for that application. It's 7'3" but can be trimmed if that's what you want to do. It's a beast of a blank, perfect for the slop. Here's a link
http://www.swamplandtackle.com...BLANK
As far as whether to spiral or not that's just up to you. If it were my personal rod I would spiral it because of the amount of shock you put on a blank fishing that way, but that's just me. I really don't think it would matter either way, like I said more a personal preference.
Something to consider with frog rods and micros! If you use braid, it brings back alot of scum from the slop and duck weed to your guides and micros will have a tendancy to crud up pretty easy! It is the one rod I wouldnt suggest using them on! IMO
I would rather have the scum build up on the tip... that is what u get with micros. i thought the same thing until i actuallyh fished micros in cottonwood. build up at the tip is much easier to deal with than at the level wind at the reel.
i would build frog rod with spiral as you will be hauling in heavy weeds
Is there a standard layout for the spiral wrap? I have not done one before.
easiest way to spiral is just place the guides as you normally would. Leave the first (butt) guide at 0 degrees (top of blank) and the rest at 180 degrees (bottom of blank).
Somewhere roughly halfway between the 1st and 2nd guides add a bumper guide at 90 degrees - doesn't matter which side, but putting it on the handle side of the reel helps the guide not get bent up when laying on the deck. I typically use a 6 or 7 double foot for the butt guide, a single foot 6 for the bumper and single foot 5 for the 1st 180 degree guide. Micros the rest of the way down. Also - do some research on static guide placement - you can often get away with using fewer guides with a spiral wrap - especially on moderate action blanks. You can use smaller guides on the 1st 3 as well depending on the thickness of the blank - all you are doing with these guides is trying to keep the line from touching the blank so on a thick blank, guides with higher frames will be required - the 7-6-5 or 6-6-5 combo is usually sufficient on most any bass blank to achieve this.
i really like the batson rx7 IMB845 for this. In some instances lower modulus graphite performs better because it is often more durable than its high modulus counterparts which reduce weight by using thinner walls and more brittle materials (thus increasing strength-to-weight ratio). When using 60+lb braid and hauling in 10lbs of slop with a fish - this can come in handy - you need a blank that is built to take a beating. I'm sure the blanks already mentioned are up to the task as well - just food for thought when considering price vs utility.
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